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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Who Killed Dean's Scene?

Many who stop by here surely know of Dean's Scene. If you aren't in the know, Dean's Scene is located in the basement of a home on Northeast Fremont Street across from the Alameda Brewpub, where it operated as a speakeasy for a number of years. Owner Dean Pottle closed the joint this week after the OLCC notified him of probable violations.

The story announcing the closure of Dean's funhouse first appeared on the Willamette Weekwebsite. There's a reason. Several months ago, WW ran a story that delved into the goings on at Dean's Scene. It was a decidedly positive story written by Martin Cizmar, arts and culture editor at WW.

At the time, many beer geeks thought the story a bad idea...thinking it drew attention to a well-kept secret that needed to stay that way. With the announcement that Dean has shut things down, those folks are piling the blame on Cizmar and WW. This is what declining attention spans do for us.

There are several points that need clarification and, apparently, explanation. Because there are details in this mess of a story that are being horrendously overlooked.

For the record, I have no loyalty to Cizmar or WW. We run in some of the same circles, but I've never met Cizmar. I exchanged emails with WW editor, Mark Zusman, Cizmar and others as part of last year's book project. That's it. In fact, I have criticized some of Cizmar's work at WW and it stuck in his craw. Even though I often disagree with his opinions, I think he's a good writer who produces entertaining stuff. But I have zero loyalty to him or WW.

Who's responsible for the closure of Dean's Scene? Definitely not Willamette Week. The original story was a great example of providing information of interest to the community. See, that's what journalists are supposed to do. Newspapers and news weeklies pay their bills by building readership that helps sell ads and subscriptions. Cizmar's story on Dean's Scene was a dialed-in fit for those objectives.

There's more. It was not Cizmar's job to investigate the legality of the operation at Dean's Scene. Or, more to the point, to evaluate the impact of the publicity. His job was to write a story that reported on what the place had to offer, good or bad. It certainly was not his job to keep Dean's Scene secret or write a negative story so the beer geek community could keep the place all to itself.

If you want to place blame, look no further than the owner of the establishment, Pottle. He agreed to be interviewed for the WW story. If he was remotely concerned that publicity might attract the interest and ire of the OLCC, he should have declined to be interviewed. Cizmar may have still written the story, but it would have been less detailed.

Another thing to consider is this: Dean's Scene is not closed permanently. In response to the OLCC notices, Pottle filed an application for a home brewers and private club license in mid-January. He closed up shop this week to prevent the possibility of OLCC action while he waits for that license. Assuming the application goes through, he will eventually reopen with some guidelines in place.

What was the OLCC's beef? A letter to Pottle dated Dec. 9 (and acquired by WW) outlines the agency's concerns in several areas. The most prominent issues involve production levels and fees.

The OLCC had discovered evidence that Pottle was brewing 30 gallons of beer every week...more than 1,500 gallons annually if extrapolated out. By the way, this fact was not revealed in Cizmar's story. It was evidently included in a TV interview Pottle did for the Esquire Network's Brew Dogs. The law limits unlicensed beer production at home to 100 gallons a year (200 in a house with two adults).

Donations, required or otherwise, were the other major issue. When I visited Dean's Scene more than a year ago, a sign on the wall said "No Beer Without Donation." Cizmar's story indicated that donations were optional. Wall signage shown in a photo published with the story contradicted that statement, but never mind. It doesn't matter to the OLCC if a donation is required or optional. You cannot charge or accept a fee for beer unless you have an OLCC license. Period. Some will quibble with this requirement, but it is clearly the law.

So Pottle was in clear violation of at least two OLCC regulations. It seems to me he should have acquired the appropriate OLCC license long ago, assuming he intended to brew 30 gallons of beer per week and offset the cost of that production via donations. By operating outside legal guidelines, he was inviting scrutiny. Why shouldn't he comply with the law? Other people do.

If the Willamette Week story and the Brew Dogs piece helped bring Pottle into compliance, perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Go ahead and turn Martin Cizmar into a virtual punching bag if you want, but what happened to Dean's Scene ain't his fault.

12 comments:

Thank you. Agreed. People have argued that Martin's article indicates "open hours", but Yelp had the hours listed already...Dean himself said he was producing 30 barrels a week, so hardly WW's fault...

I know you mean 30 gallons...30 barrels would be tough in a home system. I didn't mention that Dean's Scene was all over Yelp, but it's true. These issues were going to catch up with him at some point.

Just gonna say no one should have ever put Dean's Scene on Yelp. It was a bad idea. Dean did not agree to this. We just thought it would lead to trouble and problems for many reasons. Namely Yelp is for businesses, Dean's Scene was never a business, and Dean always freely gave more than he got back. Professional construction workers freely contributed their money and materials into fixing up the place (this was way before Dean's was "open" to the public.)

For over 10 years Dean took part in Fremont Street fair - Dean's is in the middle of the strip. He invited everyone is all day long especially neighbors. I always helped out, and have given parents and children tours of Dean's. It would usually be just one family at a time during the day. We would have home made non-alcoholic root beer for the children. On top of that Dean has also given OLCC and police tours of Dean's Scene (Sure they were all called in to investigate, BUT they all left friendly and happy giving Dean compliments, since it is a nice place, and nothing illegal was going on at the time.) FYI Dean always wanted the OLCC to come by because he wanted to show he was doing nothing illegal. Anyhow Jeff Alworth thanks for your SMUG BS "God forbid the public should find out what's happening in its community." The reason why Martin Cizmar caught heat was the community did know about Dean's and they love Dean. As far as "role of a journalist"- great scoop! Dean's had been out in the open taking part officially in neighborhood community events. Real journalists have a sense of morality, and have sense enough to know what the impact of their story will be. Thousands of people went to Dean's for over ten years with no problems. So thanks Martin Cizmar for your ground breaking story.

So Jeff Alworth when you go to a party and there are tons of people there and everyone is having safe fun- What do you call the one person who gets the cops called, gets people in trouble and fined, and ends the party for everyone? You can that person an A-hole as everyone has done. Thanks for your TOTALLY WRONG COMMENTS YOU SMUG STUPID DOOOSCH Jeff Alworth!!!

Donations have never been required. NEVER EVER! Having a donation box up on the wall to ask for help in paying for the ingredients 100% legal. So Tyler Hurst are you a cheap ass mooch who never tips. and freeloads off of everybody else? Don't bother answering Tyler your comment show what an ungrateful leech you are.

I can personally verify that donations were, in fact, REQUIRED at one point in time. How do I know? Because I was there. I saw the sign that said NO BEER WITHOUT DONATION. That seemed pretty clear. I'm sure this was to discourage freeloading and I have no idea if the rule was strictly enforced. As I say in the piece, the OLCC doesn't care if donations are required or optional. You can't accept money for beer unless you have an OLCC license. At the time, Pottle didn't. He has since acquired the appropriate licenses and turned his tasting room/brewery into some sort of club. I haven't been there.

You can accept money for the cost of running the place, the equipment, rent, electricity, water, and ingredients. Just the same as with marijuana where you are paying the grower not for the pot, but for the costs associated with it. The OLCC came over and saw Dean's Scene, and agreed that he was not breaking any rules. The rule that he obviously broke though was going over 200 gallons a year.

You are right though it there was a sign that said "NO BEER WITHOUT DONATION" that would have really been a very bad idea. I knew Dean from before Dean's Scene, and helped out for over 10 years. I would have made sure that there were no ultimatums for donations. Without donations Dean's would have closed many years before it did. We knew the OLCC had been coming in undercover for years, so things had to stay above board.

John, the name-calling and character bashing is over. That's not what the comments section here is for. You have your version of why Dean's Scene was briefly shut down by the OLCC. Fine. We get it. Future comments containing flagrant insults of any kind will be deleted. End of story.